Thomas no Shinzō
is a shōjo manga by Moto Hagio published in 1974. It is an early example of shōnen-ai. It has been adapted into a film and a stage play. Plot Set in an early 20th century all boys boarding school in Germany. A boy named Thomas commits suicide, and he writes a letter to Juli, who Thomas has an unrequited love for. A transfer student named Eric, arrives, who looks just like Thomas. Eventually Juli comes to terms with his feelings and becomes a priest. Characters * is a thirteen year old boy, he commits suicide at the beginning of the story, leaving a letter for Juli. * , nicknamed , is older than Thomas. He in fact loved Thomas, but as he had been sexually abused by his upperclassmen, he believed himself unworthy of love and pushed Thomas away. * is in the same grade as Juli. He acts like a delinquent, but deep down has a strong sense of responsibility for others. He is one of the few who knows about Juli's past. * is a transfer student to the school who looks like Thomas. Development Although Hagio had previously been exposed to the gay lifestyle magazine Barazoku, Hagio was inspired by Les amitiés particulières to begin The Heart of Thomas as a work for her own enjoyment, and soon afterwards wrote November Gymnasium as a work to be published. At one point, Hagio considered making the protagonists girls, and drew a few scenes in a sketchbook, but decided that the boys version was "smoother" and less "giggly".Thorn, Matt (2005) The Moto Hagio Interview The Comics Journal 269 Themes In an interview, Hagio said that she felt the theme might be "When does a person learn love? When does one awake to love?" Prequel A prequel manga was written called ''The Visitor (訪問者). Film The film Summer Vacation 1999 (1999年の夏休み) (released in 1988) was based on The Heart of Thomas, and the parts were played by girls as breeches roles, using male speech. The character in the film analogous to Thomas was renamed Yuu, and the analogue to Eric was renamed Kaoru, a gender-neutral name. The film was subsequently novelised.Welker, James (2006) "Beautiful, Borrowed, and Bent: "Boys' Love" as Girls' Love in Shōjo Manga" Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 31 (3): 851. Song In 1992, the musician Momus wrote the song "Summer Holiday 1999," which was inspired by Summer Vacation 1999. Stage Studio Life, a Japanese all-male theatre troupe suggested, in approximately 1995, that they stage a production of The Heart of Thomas. As of 2005, it had been staged twice. Reception Matt Thorn considers The Heart of Thomas to be about a "spiritual or mental love", and that Hagio's later work A Savage God Reigns is the "adult version" of The Heart of Thomas. Bill Randall notes Hagio's creation of several shōjo manga conventions such as the use of angelic wings.http://www.tcj.com/252/e_hagio.html Midori Matsui interprets the manga in terms of Freudian theory and regards the relationships between the characters as indicating that they live in a "closed oedipal universe as fragmented personae of the narcissistic ego".Matsui, Midori. (1993) "Little girls were little boys: Displaced Femininity in the representation of homosexuality in Japanese girls' comics," in Gunew, S. and Yeatman, A. (eds.) Feminism and The Politics of Difference, pp. 177–196. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing. The film won the awards for Best Director and Best Cinematography at the 10th Yokohama Film Festival and was named the 8th best film of the year. It was also was nominated for the Best Editing Award at the 12th Japan Academy Prize. References External links * *Summer Vacation 1999 Official Website *Two Japanese Variants of the Absolute Transvestite Film *Studio Life's Heart of Thomas page Category:1999 films Category:1980s drama films Category:1988 films Category:Coming-of-age films Category:Drama films Category:Films based on manga Category:Japanese drama films Category:Japanese films Category:Japanese-language films Category:Japanese LGBT-related films Category:Manga of 1974 Category:Manga series Category:Romance anime and manga Category:Shōjo manga Category:Shōnen-ai Category:Films directed by Shusuke Kaneko ja:トーマの心臓